Property, Plant and Equipment, Inventories: Core inventories

Issues rejected (agenda decision)

The issue is whether ‘core inventories’ held in an entity’s own facilities should be accounted for as inventories or as property, plant and equipment (PP&E).

The submitter defined core inventories as a minimum amount of material that:

is necessary to permit a production facility to start operating and to maintain subsequent production;

cannot be physically separated from other inventories; and

can be removed only when the production facility is finally decommissioned or at considerable financial charge.

At its March 2014 meeting, the Interpretations Committee tentatively decided to develop an interpretation on the accounting for core inventories.

At its July 2014 meeting, the Interpretations Committee discussed the feedback received from informal consultations with IASB members, the proposed scope of core inventories and the staff analysis of the applicability of the issue to a range of industries.

The Interpretations Committee observed that what might constitute core inventories, and how they are accounted for, can vary between industries. The Interpretations Committee noted that significant judgement might be needed in determining the appropriate accounting. Disclosure about such judgement might therefore be needed in accordance with paragraph 122 of IAS 1.

The Interpretations Committee noted that it did not have clear evidence that the differences in accounting were caused by differences in how IAS 2 and IAS 16 were being applied. In the absence of such evidence, the Interpretations Committee decided to remove this item from its agenda.